maccast_20070214

Opening
  Opening Music
    Music is Say Anything by Manda and the Marbles
    Mandaandthemarbles.com
News
  Lionsgate adds to films on iTunes
    Monday Lionsgate films became the next studio to offer films for purchase and download on iTunes
    Follows Disney and Paramount
    The deal will bring over 150 new titles to iTunes in February.
    Lionsgate is an independent studio and a producer and distributor of movies with over 10,000 titles in it's library
    Most titles will be "library" titles like "Rambo", "Terminator 2", and "Basic Instinct" Library titles sell for USD$9.99
  Beatles not exclusive to Apple?
    From MacMinute quoting a Fox News story
    Neil Aspinall, head of Apple Corps, says 13 "core albums" have been re-mastered and will be released for digital download soon
    In the article Aspinall said once songs become available for download they, “will be on all the services, not just one.”
    It is rumored that as part of the recent Apple vs. Apple lawsuit settlement the Apple Corp may be receiving royalties on Apple iTunes sales and/or iPod hardware.
  Stock option woes continue for Jobs
    The Wall Street Journal and CBS Marketwatch both have reports on options offered to Pixar director John Lasseter to lure him to Pixar
    The problem, the date on the options signed by Jobs was when shares were at their lowest and 3 months before Lasseter's contract was signed. Doh!
    Stock-options backdating is not illegal, but there are U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations on how they must be accounted for and disclosed to shareholders.
    Talk that if Jobs should suddenly become "incapacitated" Google CEO and Apple Board member Dr. Eric Schmidt is ready to step in at least temporarily
  Apple TV still shipping this month
    Amidst rumors that Apple TV shipments might slip to March an Apple spokesman has reconfirmed that units will be shipping in February
    Pre-order customers have been given a February 28th ship date
  EMI considers offering DRM free music
    According to an AP article EMI has been talking with online retailers about possibly selling its entire digital music catalog in MP3 format without copy protection.
    They are asking for proposals on how big of an advanced payment online retails would be willing to give for the DRM free rights to their catalog
    EMI has been experimenting with selling some tunes sans-DRM and says," The results of those experiments were very positive, and the fan feedback has been very enthusiastic.''
    Yahoo! Music and Monster Cable have also come out in support of Jobs' vision for a DRM free music download society.
  Apple Store Bentall Centre opens this weekend in UK
    Apple plans to open a new retail store this Saturday, February 17th at 10:00 AM in Kingston upon Thames. The Apple Store is located on the first floor of The Bentall Centre.
Feedback, Comments and Commentary
  Follow-up on replacing the MacBook Hard Drive
    Thanks to everyone who sent in this info
    The "tab" is actually on a carrier plate attached to the drive.
      Need a Torx-T8 screwdriver to remove
      Plate goes on the bottom of the new drive with the tab opposite the ports. Orientation is important so pay attention when you remove the old drive.
    Instructional videos at OWC
    iFixit Guides
  Evangelizing the Mac
    Play question from Brad
    Apple's get a Mac site is updated with "Thinking about upgrading to Vista? Even more reasons to get a Mac."
      Security pop-ups, viruses and spyware still there, need a better PC, no eye candy, driver issues, many versions to get all features.
    What do they use their PC for?
    Focus on Macs strengths, not Windows flaws. Be honest, not smug.
    Show them what you can do with a Mac. iDVD, iMovie, etc. Let them try the same thing on a PC.
    Get them to use a Mac for a week.
  Tip: Use toolbar title to reveal path
    From listener Erik
    If you Command+Click (Apple+click) on the title of a Finder window a drop-down menu appears showing the folders path.
    You can also drag and drop the folder icon to move it around the Finder.
    As with any file or folder in the Finder if you hold the option key while dragging you will get a "+" icon and dropping it will copy instead of move. Command+option to create an alias.
    Finally dragging any file or folder into the Terminal window will copy it's path. Handy for doing issuing command and 'cd's.
  Review of H2O Audio Products
    Play review from Tee
    H2O Audio
    Billibub Baddings Podcast
  Followup: Sending email using Quicksilver
    Shannon offers another way (a few more keystrokes) to send email using Quicksilver, but no Automator required and their are more fields populated.
    Invoke Quicksilver and start typing a contact that is in your address book, then tab to the action panel and start typing compose.
    You can start by entering "." (period), entering text in Quicksilver then follow the steps above and your text will be entered in the body and subject of your email.
    Finally, if you make sure 'recent mail addresses' is checked in the Quicksilver Catalog pane then you will have access to emails that are not in your address book.
    Quicksilver
  MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo Airport issues
    Listener Jim has been having "dropouts" and other connection issues with his Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro.
    He appears to not be alone and some report that booting into Windows under Bootcamp solves the issue.
    Macfixit has an explanation and some fixes:
      Anecdotal evidence suggests that this issue is the result of a mismatch of some sort between the new 802.11 pre-N chipset Apple is using in its MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo (Late 2006) and the chipsets used by some routers -- particularly older models with 802.11b-only transfer capabilities.
      Try a different router While it's not an ideal solution, some users have reported that they are able to achieve normal signal strength and network throughput by simply switching the wireless router to which the MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo is connecting. In particular, older routers that use 802.11b-only chipsets appear to be causing problems, where newer routers using 802.11g or even pre-802.11n chipsets do not.
      Moving SystemConfiguration folder Moving the folder SystemConfiguration located in /Library/Preferences, to the Desktop then restarting can resolve some connectivity issues. This workaround appears to be effective because of permissions problems that can affect the SystemConfiguration folder, and the therein contained com.apple.airport.preferences.plist file. Note that this workaround will require you to re-enter network configuration settings and may cause other lapses in functionality.
      Switching channels In some cases, switching channels on your (non-AirPort) WiFi base station can improve reception weakened by incremental updates.
      Watch for other device interference Other wireless devices operating on the same spectrum can cause interference with your AirPort connection. In fact, 2.4 GHz wireless phones and even household microwaves can cause lapses in connection or drops in speed.
    iStumbler
  Mac Flash Card app
    Listener Tom was looking for a Flash card app for OS X to help him study
    I found iFlash from Loopware USD$14.95
    Printing, audio support, images, iPod support, 3 different memorization systems built-in
    Built-in deck library of over 900 user contributed flash cards to download for free.
    Versiontracker
Closing
  Keep emails coming. Audio comments.
    maccast@gmail.com
    206-222-2788 (20-MACCAST-8)
      PLEASE LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
    MacCast Forum
    Podcasts on DIGG. DIGG the Maccast
  eMaccast and Shuffles
    Several people have noted that the "Skip when Shuffling" option is on by default and you can't change it. I think because it is an AAC?
    Problem for the Shuffle is that it won't sync
    Use the MP3 edition for the Shuffle and the AAC edition if you also listen in iTunes.
  New music: "Graduation Day" by AdriAnne Lenker
    Recommended by listener Todd. Play track.
    Bonus, AdriAnne is a Mac user too.
    Buy on iTunes
    Artists website